CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Harvard's last second attempt came up short as the men's lacrosse team lost a nail bitter to No. 12/10 Duke Saturday night at Harvard Stadium, 12-11.

Harvard held the ball with 8 seconds remaining after a flag was thrown against Duke, but Devin Dwyer's pass from behind the net was picked off by goalkeeper Kyle Turri to secure the Blue Devils' sixth win in a row. Harvard had led 10-8 midway through the fourth quarter before a late run put Duke over the top.

A crowd of 4,110 was on hand as the Crimson and Blue Devils traded the lead five times and battled through 10 tied scores.

Murphy Vandervelde recorded his second straight hat trick on five shots to pace the Harvard (4-5, 1-1 Ivy League) attack. He was aided by a four-point night from Peter Schwartz (2g, 2a) and a three-point effort from Dwyer (1g, 2a). Eight different Crimson registered a goal in the game, including freshmen Ian Ardrey who tallied his first career goal while making his first career start.

Harry Krieger finished the night with nine saves in goal, including three in fourth quarter. Rick Molé collected a team-high five ground balls while Jason Gonos added four ground balls and one caused turnover. Duke (8-4, 1-1 ACC) controlled the X, winning 18-of-26 faceoffs, but a 3-of-4 performance on man-up opportunities helped the Crimson stay in the game.

Jordan Wolf notched three goals for the Blue Devils' attack as Turri stopped 10 shots to earn the victory. Both teams were strong on their clears, with Harvard converting 17-of-19 and Duke going 19-of-22. The Crimson outshot the Blue Devils by a 38-33 margin despite a 31-25 advantage for Duke in ground balls.

The Blue Devils and Crimson traded goals to open the game with Ardrey's goal tying things up at 1-1 with 7:25 to play in the first. Schwartz evened the score again at 2-2, where it would stand heading into the second.

The teams continued the trend after the quarter break with Harvard pulling even with Duke twice. Carl Zimmerman scored the first equalizer with 11:04 remaining before Jack Walker's tally put the game at 4-4 with 9:07 on the clock. Alex White moved the Crimson on top for the first time with his score in transition, 5-4, but the Blue Devils answered back just over a minute later. The teams went into the intermission tied, 5-5.

Duke took a lead to begin the third quarter that was short lived thanks to a strike by Gabriel Mendola following a Joe Petrucci caused turnover. The teams traded goals once again, with Vandervelde's score with 2:25 to play putting the score at 7-7 heading into the final period.

Harvard drew a penalty before time expired in the third and a man-up goal from Vandervelde regained the edge for the Crimson, 8-7. After Duke tied it up yet again, back-to-back goals by Vandervelde and Schwartz gave Harvard the biggest lead of the night, 10-8, with 7:38 to play. The Blue Devils scored three goals in a span of 1:03, however, to go back on top, 11-10 with 5:20 remaining. Duke pushed its advantage to 12-10, but Dwyer found the back of the net to pull Harvard within one with only 1:14 on the clock.

The Crimson returns to Ivy League play next weekend as it hosts No. 3/3 Cornell at Harvard Stadium Saturday, April 6 at 1 p.m. Harvard will offer a free live video stream to all fans that can be accessed through GoCrimson.com.